


and that was the first day

by hanyolo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22091653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanyolo/pseuds/hanyolo
Summary: Poe just laughs,“I know who you are.”Rey rolls her eyes slightly, doesn’t hide her smile this time.“No, you don’t.”“Of course I do. My droid won’t shut up about you.” // set post-tfa, the resistance throws a party and Rey meets Poe for the first time
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 7
Kudos: 81





	and that was the first day

The celebrations last all night. No one really knows what they’re celebrating but some of the pilots had produced a fair amount of alcohol they’d apparently been hiding on base and Poe had shouted “we’re not dead, yet” and everyone had cheered him and the booze. 

Rey stays on the periphery, drinks whatever it is Jess has handed her. Other than Jess, who she met very briefly earlier in the day, the only other person she knows is Finn. And he’s in a coma, and that hurts to think about. So she drinks. Watches the others as they laugh together, tease each other. There’s a wonderful sense of camaraderie between them all and Rey can’t keep the smile off her face as Snap and Karé tease each other. There’s an easiness to it, affection behind it. And Rey briefly wonders if she’ll ever experience anything like it. 

“You look like you need a drink.”

Rey startles - it’s not often people are able to sneak up on her. Growing up on Jakku had made sure of this. She turns to her left to see Poe Dameron slide onto the seat beside her. He holds out a glass of pink liquid.

He’s grinning wildly, cheeks flushed and she doesn’t know what to make of him. 

She knows who he is, of course. BB-8 had told her all about him, but she doubts he knows who she is. Yet here he is, smile faltering the longer she takes to respond.

And maybe she should be wary of accepting a drink from an almost stranger, but he’s not really a stranger and she enjoys the way her cheeks feel warm and her head feels light, so she takes the drink from him, nose wrinkling as she brings it closer to smell it. “What is it?”

It smells sweet but she doesn’t know the scent. 

“Trust me,” Poe tells her with a laugh. 

“I don’t even know you.” She squares her shoulders defiantly, struggles not to grin at this strange, charming man. 

He turns in his seat to face her, his right knee pressing against her thigh. 

Rey ignores the way her cheeks heat up at his touch, hopes he’ll just attribute it to the alcohol. It’s not like she has a lot of experience with physical contact, or talking to people for that matter. 

Her eyes flicker over to the other side of the room, where two pilots are making out, and her cheeks burn hotter. 

“Hey,” Poe says, nudging her gently with his arm. 

She turns back to him, clears her throat awkwardly. 

He almost looks concerned, so she smiles and takes a sip of her drink. Then another. 

“Kriff, this is good,” she tells him, any traces of uncertainty gone. She drinks some more and he laughs. 

“There’s still alcohol in that,” he warns, eyes sparkling with amusement. 

“What else?”

“Koyo melon juice. Not as good as the fresh stuff but still pretty good.”

“Koyo melon,” she repeats slowly, trying out the sound of the words. 

He’s still smiling at her and she’s beginning to wonder if that’s just what he does. Her lips quirk up at the side and she turns her attention back to the party so he can’t see. 

He doesn’t move from his seat, knee and arm still pressing against her as he finishes off his beer. 

“I do know who you are,” Rey says after a couple of minutes. “I was just-“ she trails off, unsure of the word she’s looking for. _Teasing_ , she thinks. Doesn’t know if that’s something you do with someone you’ve just met. 

Poe just laughs,

“I know who you are.”

Rey rolls her eyes slightly, doesn’t hide her smile this time. 

“No, you don’t.”

“Of course I do. My droid won’t shut up about you.”

Her smile widens at this. BB-8 truly was her first friend and she’ll be forever grateful to them for helping her find Finn and the Resistance and leave Jakku behind forever. 

“I liked your speech,” she tells him. “We’re not dead, yet.”

Poe shrugs at this, looking more serious than he has all night. 

“War brings so much loss,” he says quietly. “Nights like these remind us what we’re fighting for.”

Rey finds herself fighting the urge to reach out to him, to take his hand, or lean her head against his shoulder. Instead, she downs what’s left of her drink, runs her hand through her hair. 

“I’ve never-“ she clears her throat, definitely feeling the effects of the alcohol now. “I’ve never had anything to fight for.”

Poe takes the empty glass from her hand, places it on the floor beside his seat. His glass is still half full and he takes a long drink before looking at her. His eyes are dark, serious, and she finds she can’t look away. 

“I’d find something,” he says in a low voice. “Otherwise there’s going to be nothing to keep you going when fighting seems impossible.”

_Finn_ , Rey thinks to herself. She’ll fight for Finn and for BB-8 and for General Organa, who has been so open and welcoming. She’ll fight for the memory of Han Solo, the father she never had. And, maybe, she’ll fight for Poe Dameron. For all the Rebels. 

“I do now,” she tells him quietly, smiling softly.  
Poe returns her smile, lays his hand over hers for the briefest moment. 

“Have you met everyone?” He asks brightly, and Rey’s head spins at the sudden change in his demeanour. “Come meet everyone.”

He stands and she has no choice but to follow him. But standing makes her feel dizzy and unbalanced. 

She grabs Poe’s arms to keep herself steady. 

“I think,” she begins slowly, slightly less dizzy now but not entirely certain she could stand on her own. “I think I accidentally got drunk.”

He’s laughing at her now, loud and uninhibited. His head is thrown back and Rey is briefly distracted as her eyes follow the stretch of his neck, his skin smooth and tan. She likes the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs. 

“It’s not funny,” she tells him, half-heartedly pushes him away, but she is laughing too.  
And it feels good to laugh. She doesn’t remember the last time she laughed this hard. Doesn’t remember the last time she laughed. 

“I’m sorry,” Poe says. He’s not laughing anymore but he’s still smiling. “Let me walk you to your room.”

“Oh.” Rey freezes and her face falls. She had been planning on finding a quiet corner of the base to sleep, doesn’t know how to tell him that. Doesn’t know if she should tell him that. 

“I don’t-“ she trails off, eyes trained on the ground. 

Poe hip checks her and throws his arm around her shoulder so casually she almost wants to cry. 

“You can sleep in my room,” he offers, leading her gently down the corridor, the noise of the party fading behind them. “I’m notorious on base for being the last person to leave all celebrations.”

Rey wishes she could read peoples faces and expressions better, doesn’t know what to make of the way Poe is smiling down at her. So she just nods and tucks herself into his side, tells herself it’s the alcohol that has her chasing his warmth. 

His bedroom is at the far end of the base and, by the time they get there, Rey wants nothing more than to sleep. Her eyelids are heavy, her legs are tired, and she’s starting to feel kind of nauseous. 

“You still with me?” Poe asks, left arm still tight around her waist as he opens his bedroom door. 

Rey mumbles something as he guides her to sit on the edge of his bed. He leaves to get her a shirt to change into but by the time he returns, she has face-planted onto the bed, eyes fluttering closed, so he just slips her boots off and untangles the blankets to cover her with. 

“Poe?” 

“Yeah?”

He’s standing over her and she feels ridiculous, lying in his bed while he’s right there. She briefly wonders where he’ll sleep but the part of her that is drunk and sleepy decides that she doesn’t care enough to ask. 

She clears her throat. 

“Thanks.”

He reaches out to tuck the blankets in around her shoulders, leans down and presses his lips to her forehead. It saddens her in a way she can’t explain. 

“Goodnight, Rey.”

Rey awakens with a startle, and it takes her a moment to remember where she is. In Poe Dameron’s bedroom, in Poe Dameron’s bed. She thinks she would be embarrassed if she could focus on anything other than her dry mouth and pounding head. 

She manages to force herself out of bed and into the fresher to freshen up a bit before heading down to the canteen. 

She checks in on Finn on the way - something she has taken to doing several times a day - but, no change. The disappointment she feels is almost enough to drown out her headache. 

The canteen is surprisingly quiet for the time of day. Usually there’d be a breakfast rush in about now. Instead, there’s a couple of pilots having their morning kaf, some engineers huddled in the corner with mountains of food in front of them, and Poe. 

He waves her over when he sees her, eyes sparkling as he grins. 

“Morning,” he says cheerfully. 

Rey glares at him, dramatically falls into the seat across from him and drops her head onto the table. 

“Why do I feel so terrible?”

“It’s called a hangover. You get it from drinking alcohol.”

She can hear the laughter in his voice and, despite her best efforts, can’t stop her mouth from turning up at the sides. 

“I hate it,” she exclaims, sitting up and throwing her arm across her eyes. “And I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” Poe slides his kaf towards her. “Drink this.”

Rey eyes the mug warily, brings it up so she can sniff it. 

“It’s not alcohol, is it?”

Laughing, Poe shakes his head. 

“It’s not. But if you think that would help-“

“Kriff, no.”

The kaf is lukewarm and bitter, but she drinks it anyway and thinks it might actually be helping already. Or maybe it’s the pilot sitting across from her, smiling warmly, that’s helping. 

Rey frowns slightly, shakes her head. She doesn’t know where that thought came from and she’s not interested in looking into it further. 

“Do you feel hungry or sick?” Poe asks. He’s still smiling, almost fondly now. 

“Definitely hungry,” Rey says, thankful for the distraction. 

“Right, let’s go.”

So they go and pile some plates with food  
(“a bit of everything,” Rey explains, quiet and unsure. “Just to try.” And Poe nods and adds the same amount to his own plate, for which she is unbelievably grateful)  
and come back to the table. They eat together, and it’s the first time she’s eaten a proper meal with someone else, and it’s just _nice_. 

Poe is animatedly telling her about his time in the Resistance and Rey eats and listens, a thoughtful smile on her face, as she thinks she might have just made her third friend. 

(However, the butterflies she feels in her stomach when he smiles at her, eyes crinkling at the side, tells her it might be more than that. But she’ll deal with that later, she thinks. After all, she’s not going anywhere.)

**Author's Note:**

> I may add to this, either more chapters or a collection but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see if I can actually come up with anything else. Anyway let me know what you think pls and thank u!!


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